Acoustic source location in a jet-blown flap using a cross-correlation technique

The acoustic source strength distribution in a turbulent flow field was measured for two far field microphones at 45 deg above and below the plane of the flap surface. A processed signal from an inclined hot-film anemometry probe was cross correlated with the signal from the appropriate far field microphone. The contribution made by the sources associated with the fluctuating pressure on the flap surface to the sound received at far field microphone was estimated by cross correlating the processed signals of microphones which were embedded in the flap surface with the far field microphone signals. In addition, detailed fluid dynamic measurements were made in the flow field of the jet flap using dual sensor hot-film anemometry probes

Applying the Multiple Multidimensional Knapsack Assignment Problem to a Cargo Allocation and Transportation Problem with Stochastic Demand

The US military relies on airlift to not only deploy and sustain U.S. armed forces anywhere in the world but also to rapidly mobilize humanitarian efforts and supplies. Operations already impacted by the limited capacity of aircraft also fall prey to dynamic requirements and differing priorities of multiple global locations. A growing concern for the modern military budget is how to provide airlift functions expediently and economically while mitigating the costs of shortfalls and overages. Utilizing fiscal year 2017-2018 cargo data published by the 618th Air Operations Center and modeling this problem as a multiple multidimensional knapsack assignment problem (MMKAP), this work investigates how categorical assumptions about demand affect aircraft allocation and assesses the economic penalties associated with shorting or exceeding demand in the event of mis-estimation given a stochastic demand. This work starts with the general formulation of a new variant of the MMKAP and applies the MMKAP to a notional military airlift example with two supply, two demand nodes, two item types, and three aircraft types. After a deterministic solution is found, the effects of a stochastic demand are explored using different cost models and random draws from distribution functions based on reported cargo shipment data. This research concludes that there are levels at which demand expectations can be set to mitigate economic penalties given a fixed cost penalty and a variable cost penalty

Endotoxin induced peritonitis elicits monocyte immigration into the lung: implications on alveolar space inflammatory responsiveness

BACKGROUND: Acute peritonitis developing in response to gram-negative bacterial infection is known to act as a trigger for the development of acute lung injury which is often complicated by the development of nosocomial pneumonia. We hypothesized that endotoxin-induced peritonitis provokes recruitment of monocytes into the lungs, which amplifies lung inflammatory responses to a second hit intra-alveolar challenge with endotoxin. METHODS: Serum and lavage cytokines as well as bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells were analyzed at different time points after intraperitoneal or intratracheal application of LPS. RESULTS: We observed that mice challenged with intraperitoneal endotoxin developed rapidly increasing serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cytokine and chemokine levels (TNFα, MIP-2, CCL2) and a nearly two-fold expansion of the alveolar macrophage population by 96 h, but this was not associated with the development of neutrophilic alveolitis. In contrast, expansion of the alveolar macrophage pool was not observed in CCR2-deficient mice and in wild-type mice systemically pretreated with the anti-CD18 antibody GAME-46. An intentional two-fold expansion of alveolar macrophage numbers by intratracheal CCL2 following intraperitoneal endotoxin did not exacerbate the development of acute lung inflammation in response to intratracheal endotoxin compared to mice challenged only with intratracheal endotoxin. CONCLUSION: These data, taken together, show that intraperitoneal endotoxin triggers a CCR2-dependent de novo recruitment of monocytes into the lungs of mice but this does not result in an accentuation of neutrophilic lung inflammation. This finding represents a previously unrecognized novel inflammatory component of lung inflammation that results from endotoxin-induced peritonitis

COMPARISON OF THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF SELF-REPORTED ARTICULAR INDICES

Our objective was to compare the validity and reliability of three formats for self-administered articular indices assessing pain (PAI) or swelling (SAI). Fifty-five patients with rheumatoid arthritis were asked to mark the degree of pain on a list of 16 joints (PAI list), to mark ‘painful joints' on a mannequin presenting 42 joints (PAI diagram), and to mark ‘swollen or tender joints' on a mannequin presenting 38 joints (SAI diagram). The test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient) ranged from 0.63 (SAI diagram) to 0.67 (PAI diagram) and 0.85 (PAI list). The correlation with clinical parameters was strongest for the PAI list and the SAI diagram. The association of the SAI diagram with clinical parameters increased with omission of the less reliable toe joints and/or weighting for joint size according to Lansbury. As expected, the short and weighted SAI diagram correlated more strongly with the physician-derived swollen joint count (r = 0.49), C-reactive protein (r = 0.49) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r = 0.41) than did the PAI list whereas the PAI list correlated more strongly with physician-derived tender joint count (r = 0.43), global pain measured on a numerical rating scale (r = 0.57) and the Health Assessment Questionnaire (r = 0.49) than did the SAI diagram. We concluded that patients' rating of tender and swollen joints on a mannequin diagram and calculation of a 26-joint and weighted articular index produces an excellent estimate of total joint inflammation, which may be useful in clinical, health services and epidemiological research. An articular index calculated from ratings of pain degree of 16 joints or joint groups may provide complementary informatio

Mapping global extraction of abiotic and biotic raw materials

Reducing global environmental and social impacts related to final consumption is a significant societal as well as scientific challenge, especially as production and consumption are increasingly geographically disconnected via complex supply chains. Tracing the interlinkages between consumption and production as well as related impacts in a spatially explicit way can contribute to overcoming this challenge. Currently, the spatial resolution of global models of raw material extraction, trade and consumption is limited to the national level. Thus, they fail to link specific supply chains to the actual geographical location of production and related impacts. Detailed global spatiotemporal datasets would allow tracing the heterogeneity of environmental and social conditions within producing countries. In this contribution, we present our preliminary results mapping global biotic and abiotic raw materials extraction in 5-arc-minutes (around 10 km x 10 km at the equator) grid cell level, starting from the year 2000. Our datasets will include around 60 different raw materials, covering crops, fishery, fossil energy resources, metal ores and non-metallic minerals. In the future, our database will also include spatially explicit data on environmental and social impacts related to the extraction of these raw materials. The new database, methods, and algorithms will be openly available to the research community and the wider public, supporting open and reproducible science. Our novel database will allow developing new methods to assess the interlinkages between consumption and various environmental and social impacts related to extraction on a grid cell level. It can boost the spatially explicit assessments of supply chains and consumption patterns in both developed and developing countries, which is crucial for the design of international policy instruments to achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns

Tidal signals in ocean-bottom magnetic measurements of the Northwestern Pacific: observation versus prediction

Motional induction in the ocean by tides has long been observed by both land and satellite measurements of magnetic fields. While these signals are weak (∼10 nT) when compared to the main magnetic field, their persistent nature makes them important for consideration during geomagnetic field modelling. Previous studies have reported several discrepancies between observations and numerical predictions of the tidal magnetic signals and those studies were inconclusive of the source of the error. We address this issue by (1) analysing magnetometer data from ocean-bottom stations, where the low-noise and high-signal environment is most suitable for detecting the weak tidal magnetic signals, (2) by numerically predicting the magnetic field with a spatial resolution that is 16times higher than the previous studies and (3) by using four different models of upper-mantle conductivity. We use vector magnetic data from six ocean-bottom electromagnetic (OBEM) stations located in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The OBEM tidal amplitudes were derived using an iteratively re-weighted least-squares (IRLS) method and by limiting the analysis of lunar semidiurnal (M2), lunar elliptic semidinurnal (N2) and diurnal (O1) tidal modes to the night-time. Using a 3-D electromagnetic induction solver and the TPX07.2 tidal model, we predict the tidal magnetic signal. We use earth models with non-uniform oceans and four 1-D mantle sections underneath taken from Kuvshinov and Olsen, Shimizu etal. and Baba etal. to compare the effect of upper-mantle conductivity. We find that in general, the predictions and observations match within 10-70 per cent across all the stations for each of the tidal modes. The median normalized percent difference (NPD) between observed and predicted amplitudes for the tidal modes M2, N2 and O1 were 15 per cent, 47 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively, for all the stations and models. At the majority of stations, and for each of the tidal modes, the higher resolution (0.25°×0.25°) modelling gave amplitudes consistently closer to the observations than the lower resolution (1°×1°) modelling. The difference in lithospheric resistance east and west of the Izu-Bonin trench system seems to be affecting the model response and observations in the O1 tidal mode. This response is not seen in the M2 and N2 modes, thereby indicating that the O1 mode is more sensitive to lithospheric resistanc

The potential of Landsat time series to characterize historical dynamic and monitor future disturbances in human-modified rainforests of Indonesia

In this study we demonstrated for the first time the potential of using full time series from high spatial resolution (30 m) Landsat satellites, covering a period from 1987-2017, for characterizing historical dynamics in Indonesian humid tropical rainforests. Our special focus was on mapping forest disturbance and post-disturbance regrowth, which in turn can potentially be used to map primary (undisturbed) forests, secondary (disturbed/degraded) forests, and forest land converted to oil palm plantation. We applied the Breaks For Additive Season and Trend (BFAST) Monitor framework for continuous change detection; BFAST is a generic and transparent method, which can be used for near-real-time monitoring. To verify our approach, a preliminary spatial accuracy assessment was carried out for disturbance detection using 418 sample pixels interpreted from very high spatial resolution images acquired through Digital Globe viewing service. Besides, we identified the sources of detection errors and approaches to overcome them. Implementation of the potential map product in existing international and national policies will be discusse